CARIBBEAN leaders have condemned a new US policy that aims to restrict the activities of Cuban medical missions.

They insist that hundreds of Cuban medical staff do essential work across the Caribbean.

Guyana’s Foreign Minister Hugh Todd told reporters on Tuesday that foreign ministers from 15-member Caribbean trade bloc Caricom had recently met US special envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone in Washington after the US threatened to restrict the visas of those involved with Cuban missions.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has in the past referred to the missions as “forced labour.”

Mr Todd said: “The US is a strategic partner to Caricom, but this very important issue has to be dealt with at the level of heads of government.”

Overall, Cuba has 24,180 doctors working in 56 nations, with the missions boosting healthcare across the Caribbean.

“Their presence here is of importance to our healthcare system,” Jamaican Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith told a press briefing last week, noting that the island has more than 400 Cuban doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers and technicians.

Two influential Caribbean leaders have publicly slammed the new policy.

“I will prefer to lose my visa than to have 60 poor and working people die,” said Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.

He said Cuban doctors were providing critical care to patients, including 60 who receive dialysis treatment.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley told reporters on Monday: “I just came back from California and, if I never go back there again in my life, I will ensure that the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago is known to its people and respected by all.”

Last month, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused Mr Rubio of putting his “personal agenda” before US interests and called the move an “unjustified aggressive measure.”